That’s the consensus view: new rules established in the wake of the financial crisis that banks hold higher capital-to-asset ratios are limiting banks’ willingness to lend to households and small firms, and thus keeping credit from flowing to where it’s needed most to keep the economy expanding.

Indeed, there’s been some backpedaling on stiff regulations announced in the teeth of the financial crisis. For instance, bank lobbying has forced regulators to relent recently on Basel III requirements. Rules on liquidity ratios and how quickly they need to be applied have been relaxed.

The U.K. government had hoped cooling inflation and a revival in consumer confidence would boost spending, but Christmas sales showed very little pick-up in growth, except online, which proved the saviour for some retailers and the downfall of others.

European Pressphoto Agency

Online sales accounted for up to 20% of total retail spend this Christmas according to e-retail industry body IMRG, and those retailers that have a strong web and mobile presence reported a fillip to generally weak store-based sales.

Sales at Argos, the general merchandise store chain owned by Home Retail Group, returned to growth after several years of decline, the company reported Thursday, as its strong online strategy coincided with rampant demand for consumer electronics, particularly tablets.

Tablets also boosted Curry’s and PC-World owner Dixons Retail which Thursday reported an 8% rise in same-store sales in the U.K. Chief Executive Sebastian James said the retail group sold a tablet every two seconds (during opening hours) in the 12 weeks to Jan. 5., with Apple making up around a third of those sales, while competitors like Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus gained market share.

While online sales and a well-developed multi-channel offer proved pivotal to Christmas sales growth at retailers like Next, Debenhams, John Lewis, Tesco and J Sainsbury, the dearth of an online presence proved the undoing of others.

David Cameron’s speech on the U.K.’s future in the European Union could be big news for sterling.

In fact, it could prove to be a defining moment that justifies the pound’s safe-haven status and makes it an even more attractive alternative to the euro.

At the moment, the fortunes of the pound look distinctly poor.

The sterling index has been falling steadily since the start of the year and, as Capital Economics chief U.K. economist Vicky Redwood suggested in recent research, there are seven good reasons to keep selling the currency.

Slow economic growth, more quantitative easing, a deteriorating current-account position, easing of the euro-zone debt crisis, the possible loss of the U.K.’s triple-A rating and a loss of fiscal discipline all feature on the list.

If U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is still looking for evidence that the EU needs the U.K. more than the U.K. needs the EU ahead of the controversial speech on Europe that he’ll deliver in the Netherlands on Friday, he need look no further than those figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association warning that demand for new cars in the EU might shrink by around 5% in 2013 after falling 8.2% last year.

Those in favor of the U.K.’s membership of the EU argue that the U.K. needs the EU markets for its goods. But those against say it’s better for exporters to concentrate on growing emerging markets rather than shrinking markets in Europe. And the data certainly back the latters’ argument.

Just last week came news that Honda Motor Co. is planning to cut 800 jobs at its Swindon plant in the U.K., saying that “sustained conditions of low demand in European markets make it necessary to re-align Honda’s business structure.”

Then, this week, we heard that Jaguar Land Rover is to create 800 jobs at its Solihull plant in the U.K. after a 30% leap in global sales last year. The group said China was now its biggest market and had seen a 70% jump in sales in 2012.

This says two things: that the U.K. might be well advised to concentrate on upmarket vehicles like Jaguars and Range Rovers rather than volume cars like Hondas. But also that a concentration on growing markets like China must be better than worrying about shrinking markets like the EU’s.

By accident or design, the U.K. seems to have identified itself with its products more than almost any other nation. This now works to its advantage. A mid-range car can be made anywhere, but a Rolls-Royce must at the very least go through final assembly in the U.K. to make it a Rolls-Royce, even if we know it’s really a BMW with a walnut dash.

In a post which first appeared on our Southeast Asia Real Time blog, Chun Han Wong looks at why there’s been a rush of Asian buyers eager to snap up real estate in the Battersea Power Station project.

As regulators in Asia try to rein in runaway home prices, a historical London landmark—set for a second life as a high-end residential and lifestyle destination—is firing up wealthy Asian homebuyers seeking new destinations for their money.

Even before sales started last week, the company behind Battersea Power Station‘s redevelopment had drawn thousands of queries from prospective Asian investors, all seeking prime real estate alongside the austere monolith that has for decades marked the south bank of the River Thames with its four towering chimneys.

Nearly 10,000 people so far have asked about buying one of the 800 homes available in the first phase of the Battersea project, and half of them come from Asia, according to Rob Tinckell, chief executive of Battersea Power Station Development Co.

“You’ve got austerity measures introduced in Hong Kong and Singapore to slow down the local property markets, but you’re not going to slow down people’s appetite for real-estate investments,” Mr. Tinckell said in an interview. “Whenever there’s a crisis or new legislation to curb investment, the first place people look to go to is London.”

Like their counterparts in China, regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore have recently introduced aggressive property-market curbs to cool prices that have continuously surged to fresh records in the last few years. These measures have dulled sentiment, particularly in the luxury segment, and pushed some of Asia’s wealthy into picking up properties in other markets.

But the Battersea developers are hard pressed to meet the demand from Asia, as buyers in the U.K. have already reserved 600 apartments in the first week of sales.

Equity markets slipped Wednesday as worries about global growth undermined sentiment, and as investors looked ahead to this week’s slew of U.S. bank earnings.

We’ve sifted through today’s broker notes. Here’s a selection of top picks.

Anglo American was under pressure following heavy losses in the previous session on news of platinum production capacity cuts and after Société Générale downgraded the stock to “sell”. It said that incoming chief executive Mark Cutifani may not reshuffle the company as radically as previously thought via an exit from Anglo Platinum or a reduction of South African exposure.

Its brokers also believe the platinum review may leave investors unimpressed and “the discontent of the South African government and other key stakeholders is likely to undermine the magnitude of Anglo Platinum’s restructuring.”

Elsewhere, Barclays took a look at the European general retail sector, downgrading it to “negative”.

ITV, the U.K.’s biggest commercial broadcaster, has had a facelift as part of its five-year transformation plan, and the early signs are positive.

The new logos and color schemes, which went live on Monday across its five channels, online, distribution and production businesses after 12 months in the works, look to be a hit among most ITV viewers and industry executives judging by their comments on Twitter.

Viewer Lorraine Hambleton tweeted that she loved ITV’s new look, noting there was “such clarity of what each of your channels are all about. A source of inspiration.”

Lisa Mcghee, an advertising executive at Havas Worldwide in London tweeted: “Loving the new ‘colour-picking’ logo as part of the #itvrebrand.” Gary Taylor, digital director at @tmwltd, said he and the team at @tmwltd love the new ITV rebrand, adding that the broadcaster had done a “great job.”

U.K. house prices and activity picked up in the final month of last year and in another sign that sentiment is beginning to improve, house builder Taylor Wimpey Monday announced profits near the top-end of expectations.

RICS also reported that none of its survey respondents is expecting house prices to fall between January and March this year and the number of property transactions made in the first quarter of the new year are expected to rise.

Peter Bolton King, RICS global residential director, said:

“As we start the new year confidence to the housing market does appear to be improving. Our members are predicting that transaction levels will continue increasing in many parts of the country and it may be that we are now over the very worst.”

HMV, the 92-year-old U.K. music chain, today went into administration, the latest high street retailer to fall victim to the consumer shift towards online shopping.

The demise of HMV comes a week after British camera retailer Jessops and Virgin France–France’s second-largest entertainment chain–both filed for bankruptcy, highlighting the extreme challenges facing traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers as they compete with online-only brands like Amazon.

The U.K. high street has had an especially difficult year, during which household brands including JJB Sports, Comet and Game Group have all entered administration.

HMV, which opened its first store in 1921, tried to delay the inevitable by selling off its its book store Waterstones for £53 million and its Hammersmith Apollo music venue for £32 million. But it said Monday that it was unable to continue trading without breaching banking agreements.

News that Electricité de France is in talks with state-owned China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. on forming a partnership to build new nuclear power stations in Britain is a welcome boost to U.K. government ambitions for new plants, but there is still one huge hurdle to be cleared first.

Before EDF can get a new partner on board or take a final investment decision on the multi-billion dollar project, it has to agree with the U.K. government the guaranteed price the French utility will be paid for the electricity generated by the new nuclear power plant.

This “strike price” will give EDF and any other investors in that project clarity on future returns–something that is vital for nuclear projects which are complex, lengthy and have huge upfront costs.